The 20 Best Basketball Movies Ever Made

It only makes sense that Jesus Shuttlesworth, one of the best athletes ever created for the movies, equates basketball to “poetry in motion.” When played at its best, the sport is a celebration of grace, power and movement set to a soundtrack of squeaky shoes, whistles, and buzzers. But the movies know that basketball rarely achieves this utopian vision—at least until players learn to become a team. Like most sports depicted on the big screen, basketball dribbles to its own familiar beats, narrative arcs, and shot-sinking fourth quarters. It relies on culture-changing head coaches, a motley crew of underdogs and arrogant stars, and the inherent drama of the camera cutting to the scoreboard.

Embedded into these court dramas are a variety of political and social issues, the majority of which are both complicated and solved with the sweet sound of leather swishing against nylon. With March Madness in full effect, here are the best 20 basketball movies that will get you ready to hit the gym.

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20Celtic Pride

Buena Vista Pictures

It’s easy to mistake Daniel Stern for a younger Bill Simmons in Celtic Pride, the 1996 comedy co-written by Judd Apatow and Colin Quinn about a pair of Boston die-hards that worship their teams above, well, everything else. Desperate for the Celtics to beat the Jazz in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, Mike (Stern) and Jimmy (Dan Akroyd) intoxicate and kidnap Utah’s best player, Lewis Scott (Damon Wayans), which inevitably has bigger implications than the final result of a basketball game. It’s a sketch in search of a movie, but it does give us peak Christopher McDonald—at his Happy Gilmore height—playing Utah’s capricious coach. Rent/buy on Amazon and iTunes.

19Like Mike

20th Century Fox

Winning the award for most NBA cameos in one movie, Like Mike tells the fantastical tale of Calvin Cambridge (Lil’ Bow Wow), an orphan who laces up some old sneakers with the faded initials “MJ.” His ball skills instantly elevate to superstar levels, prompting the fictional Los Angeles Knights to sign him. This looks like a marketing ploy until Cambridge waxes the floor with perennial All-Stars. He finds the father figure he’s always searched for in his much-taller teammate (played by Morris Chestnut), giving this brand-infused, career trampoline scenario just enough emotional gravity.

18Teen Wolf

Atlantic Releasing Corporation

For more than a minute, the entire gymnasium goes quiet. Michael J. Fox has just transformed into a werewolf and begins dribbling the basketball before stunned teammates and stupefied fans. Eventually he takes advantage by sprinting down the court and finishing with a slam dunk; the horrified shock eventually turns into a happy surprise. This kid can finally play! The movie ranks near the very bottom when it comes to portraying quality basketball, but Teen Wolf, as his classmates eventually call him, somehow becomes an incredible athlete, ball hog, and minor celebrity who struggles to harness his hair-growing, eye-glowing instincts. The logic of this is preposterous, but Fox has enough charm—even on a full moon. Rent/buy on Amazon and iTunes.

17The Basketball Diaries

New Line Cinema

The first time he starts to dribble, it’s clear that Leonardo DiCaprio can’t actually play basketball. But this determination doesn’t really matter in The Basketball Diaries, based on poet Jim Carroll’s memoir by the same name. The star status playing on the “hottest Catholic High School basketball team in New York City” burns quickly and brightly for Carroll, who is sexually abused by his coach and submerges into a destructive drug addiction. It’s a bleak depiction of athletic potential wasted. Instead of providing a way out, basketball offers a glimpse of what could have been. Rent/buy on Amazon and iTunes.

16Sunset Park

Shutterstock

Another bullet point in the “white savior” movie pantheon, Sunset Park tells the story of an inept inner-city gym teacher (Rhea Perlman) who takes over her high school’s basketball team to make some extra money. Over the course of this undertaking she turns a talented but dysfunctional group into a mostly polished product, bonding with—and bailing out—the team’s lovesick point guard (Fredro Starr) and straightening out a drugged-up Terrance Howard. The basketball scenes are poorly edited, disrupting the flow of an otherwise cliché-ridden, winning season. Try to enjoy the little things, such as Perlman learning—then teaching—a 3-2 zone. Rent/buy on Amazon and iTunes.

15Fast Break

Alamy

If you only learned about basketball by watching movies, then you’d believe New York City is the only hotbed of prime talent that college coaches have forgotten to recruit. Fast Break doubles down on this premise, in which a delicatessen owner (Gabe Kaplan) fulfills his dream of coaching basketball by accepting a job at a miniscule Nevada college. Before he leaves his wife and heads west, he collects a handful of inner-city kids he wants to give a second chance. Throughout sorting his team’s requisite problems, he burns through the competition to reach the reliable big game against vaunted Nevada State. Refreshingly, the movie sticks to the court without straying to the casino.

14Semi-Pro

New Line Cinema

A tribute to all things 70s—its colors, hair, and sexism—Semi-Pro finished Will Ferrell’s streak playing fictitious sports icons with a hardwood throwback. Here he plays Jackie Moon, a one-hit wonder that turned his fortune into owning, coaching and playing for ABA team the Flint Tropics. With an NBA merger looming and the Tropics on the outs, he acquires a former Celtic (Woody Harrelson) to get his team back into contention. That the team’s goal is to finish in fourth place is all you need to know about a comedy that features Andre 3000 introducing the world to the Alley-oop and Ferrell squaring off with a grizzly bear to get fans in the seats. Rent/buy on Amazon and iTunes.

13One On One

Shutterstock

One on One hasn’t aged particularly well as it pertains to sexual harassment and player abuse. That said, the movie features a couple of strong performances from Robby Benson, playing shaggy-haired, wide-eyed freshman point guard Henry Steele, and Annette O’Toole, who tutors Henry and inevitably falls for his spacey, shy persona. He’s the opposite on the court, showboating at every chance, and the central drama comes from his head coach threatening to remove his scholarship. Henry rides the pine for most of the year but delivers a “red-hot poker” final line after saving an undefeated season. Rent/buy on iTunes.

12Rebound: The Legend of Earl “The Goat”

HBO

At the beginning of Rebound, a reporter asks Kareem Abdul-Jabar which player was the greatest he’d ever seen. His answer is Earl Manigault, aka “The Goat,” the subject of this HBO biopic starring Don Cheadle, who channels the rise, fall, and redemption of the Harlem playground legend. An elite guard and prolific jumper, Manigault blows a chance at college and spirals into drug addiction, wasting the potential that a neighborhood sanitation worker (Forrest Whitaker) sees in him. His reemergence as a community leader is shortchanged in the movie but remains a significant part of his legacy throughout New York.

11Above the Rim

New Line Cinema

It’s nearly impossible to keep track of how many dunks occur in Above the Rim, a movie that takes its title very seriously. The kind of street ball its high school hotshot protagonist Kyle (Duane Martin) embraces is in opposition to the style his head coach and college scouts want him to play. A glorified ball hog, Kyle gets in too deep with a Harlem drug dealer (a villainous Tupac Shakur), whose older brother (Leon), a former high school star turned security guard, begins dating Kyle’s mother. The performances—including small roles for Marlon Wayans and Bernie Mac—give extra weight to an unpredictable playground tournament finale that is wonderful and frightening at the same time. Rent/buy on Amazon and iTunes.

10Space Jam

Warner Bros.

Aside from creating an earworm hit song, Space Jam provided the ideal star vehicle for Michael Jordan, whose mythos enhanced with this classic entertainment venture. Mixing animation with some of the game’s biggest stars, the movie teams Jordan up with the Looney Tunes to play a basketball game against supercharged aliens that have taken his NBA peers’ skills hostage. The “MonStars” soon learn they should never challenge a team featuring the greatest of all-time, especially when he has help from Bill Murray, who continues his demon defeating on the hardwood.

9Cornbread, Earl, and Me

American International Pictures

A heavy rainstorm provides the backdrop for a mistaken murder, turning an otherwise sunny basketball inspirational tale into a disheartening courtroom procedural. Nathanial “Cornbread” Hamilton, embodied by NBA star Jamaal Wilkes, plays big brother to neighbors Wilfred (Lawrence Fishburne) and Earl (Tierre Turner), but weeks before heading to college he’s tragically killed by police, who confuse him for a criminal. More than 40 years later, the movie remains sadly pertinent to today and a young Fishburne’s stirring testimony in the final scene is a moving reminder of what kind of actor he’d become.

8Finding Forrester

Columbia Pictures

How could a talented black basketball player from the Bronx be the best writer inside an elite Manhattan private school? You might call this Gus Van Sant’s spiritual New York sequel to Good Will Hunting, challenging stereotypes and reminding us not to judge books by their covers. Jamal (Rob Brown), the phenom in question, strikes up an unlikely friendship with a famous Scottish novelist turned recluse (Sean Connery), who becomes a prickly mentor to the 16-year old. Even though Jamal carries a basketball in nearly every scene (the kid is a natural), the climax swaps the court for the classroom, where it’s clear a Pulitzer awaits his future. Rent/buy on Amazon and iTunes.

7Glory Road

Buena Vista Pictures

Glory Road begins with archival footage of changing times. It’s the mid-1960s and indeed, times are changing at Texas Western University, where Don Haskins (Josh Lucas) shows up to take over the basketball program. Without recruiting support, he finds seven black players—with little chance to attend college—to fill up his squad. Throughout the Miners’ nearly undefeated season, they experience all kinds of resistance to integration, which comes to a boil when Haskins makes history by starting five African-American players in the National Championship game. Nothing surprises here, and nothing really disappoints, in this competently made retrospective. Rent/buy on Amazon and iTunes.

6Coach Carter

Paramount Pictures

Considered Remember the Titans on a basketball court, Coach Carter relishes every ounce of Samuel L. Jackson as the dictatorial head coach that takes over an unmotivated team and changes its entire culture with some strict, well-intentioned rules and caustic temperament. Based off the real Ken Carter, who famously locked out his 1999 Richmond High School team from playing until its grades improved, the movie embraces the tension of winning expectations and academic integrity. Come for Jackson’s burns, stay for Rick Gonzalez quoting Marianne Williamson and softening your heart. Rent/buy on Amazon and iTunes.

5Hoosiers

Orion Pictures

It will forever be the quintessential Indiana basketball movie. Norman Dale (Gene Hackman) ruffles feathers as Hickory’s new basketball coach instilling the fundamentals of the game. The small farm town’s best player, Jimmy Chitwood, holds out playing but eventually joins the team so long as Dale stays, and the seven-man unit surges towards its championship goals. Hoosiers set the blueprint for the classic motivational speech—if you play hard, you’re winners, regardless of the scoreboard—followed by a locker room power clap featured on video boards across every professional sports venue. Among its many contributions, the movie gave new meaning to carrying measuring tape inside large arenas. Rent/buy on Amazon and iTunes.

4Blue Chips

Shutterstock

Nick Nolte begins Blue Chips giving off his best Bobby Knight impersonation, spitting angry and throwing water coolers. His mediocre team has finished with a losing season, the supposed consequence of running a clean program. To gain his dignity, libido and reputation back, the ball coach architects some illegal recruiting and lands some NBA-acting talent, including Orlando Magic teammates Penny Hardaway and Shaquille O’Neal. William Friedkin’s movie remains particularly prescient regarding the seedy underbelly of collegiate boosters and the perpetual temptations players and coaches must navigate on a daily basis. Rent/buy on Amazon and iTunes.

3He Got Game

Buena Vista Pictures

This Spike Lee Joint wraps every affliction and temptation for a No. 1 high school basketball prospect into the final week of his college commitment. The inspired choice to cast Ray Allen as Coney Island sensation Jesus Shuttlesworth works its best near the film’s climax during a one-on-one session with his domineering father, Jake (Denzel Washignton). The governor has granted him parole from his murder sentence to persuade Jesus to play for Big State University, culling the demons of their family history. It remains a disappointingly relevant movie, showing glimpses of LaVar Ball, corrupted recruiting and the NCAA’s nefarious economic culture. Rent/buy on Amazon and iTunes.

2Love and Basketball

New Line Cinema

“All is fair in love and basketball” is maybe the only trite moment spoken in Gina Prince-Blythewood’s directorial debut. This classic courtship between Monica (Sanaa Lathan) and Quincy (Omar Epps) begins and ends on the asphalt, where flirtation and feelings are translated through their one-on-one matchups. The pair negotiates its relationship while striving for individual collegiate and professional success, a task this movie treats with the care and authenticity it demands over its four-quarter life. Love and Basketball doesn’t emphasize the big game or final shot. It’s more concerned with the lessons learned long after the buzzer sounds. Rent/buy on Amazon and iTunes.

1White Men Can't Jump

20th Century Fox

Despite the fact that both Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson stand well below six feet, their confidence and trash-talking bravura more than makes up for their height disparity. The pair of Venice Beach hustlers begin as foes and realize the monetary gains to be made off “chumps,” the most insulting street ball diss, who stereotype skin color and must pay for it later. Director Ron Shelton elevates the basketball scenes—on the beach and the playground—with comedic dexterity, while Rosie Perez, playing Harrelson’s girlfriend, is the perfect third wheel to this scheming and entertaining operation. Long live baggy T-shirts and bicycle caps. Rent/buy on Amazon and iTunes.

Jake Kring-SchreifelsJake Kring-Schreifels is a sports and entertainment writer based in Washington, D.C.

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